Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

Hiding In Plain Sight

(that title made me think of Eddie; suddendoty.jpg)

There's a recurring theme in what I search for in photography, what we can't reach. This is a feeling I often get while contemplating high mountains. They always seem to me to be a universe of their own, hiding in their huge scale. It's very similar when I look at galaxies : they're finite objects we can more or less absorb with a single glimpse of the eye, but they hold billions of elements, maybe life, way beyond our grasp. Our imagination has the ability to make them infinite.

(this after-the-fact comment is actually the closest I've yet come to explaining such a feeling. I'm self-stealing it for my Facebook page.)

Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

Hurlement (Howling)

Throwback to a night out in the wild during a stay in Savoie in 2016, and a powerful sunset on the mountains looming over us. It took us a while to realize the biggest one in the distance (not pictured here) was Mont Blanc. We didn't recognize it from that unusual angle.

I actually processed that picture back in '16 but never published it. I gave it a finishing touch two days ago and sit for a while in front of it, trying to put into words how the scene made me feel. I was recalled of that feeling that the mountains were angry and spitting a fire before going to sleep. A "deafening silence" as I call it, followed by a quiet emptiness. It certainly was a memorable bivouac for us.

Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

I'm in the process of allowing myself to spend more active, productive energy on my expression. This is how about two weeks ago, I drove to my home region in the southern Alps and hiked up a mountain and slept there alone.

Getting there, I originally postponed it because weak storms were surrounding me and I walked a good 300 feet from my car before hearing thunder. I drove a bit around the area to capture some stormy atmospheres, and as the storms died in the late afternoon, I went back to hiking.

After about two hours of painful ascent (heavy bag + lame physical state due to a huge VFX deadline the week before), I reached a pasture area, still empty from any flocks and their associated patous (stupidly aggressive sheepdogs).

This is when the clouds born from the storms started breaking up and the huge mountain barrier I was coming to see revealed itself in the late sunlight. It was very cinematic. A turning point, between shrouded everything and clear evening. This is when the mountain resonates most visually with how I see it inside.

Le Trône des Abîmes(Throne of the Abyss)

I saw this kind of battle between the elements for a throne. But the storm is a temporary power. The mountain gives it birth and death all the same, and always wins in the end, magnificent and still - infinite also, to us humans at least.

After shooting lots of inspiring sights, I chose a right spot, put up the tent, and contemplated the solitary evening, filled with awesome atmospheres to bring back.

Sleeping alone in the mountain was a first, but nothing I did there was unknown. This is one of those instances I've waited a long time for in my life, where I felt actual trust in myself, enough to actually do this and never really question it. Everything felt right to me. I was as happy to be there alone searching for expression, as I was going down the mountain the next morning to go back to my loved one.

This picture may be the most speaking, but I have lots of other things to say about that experience.

Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

Re: Sebastien's Photography Thread

Calling

From the same day as the previous picture. It was at the start of the hike, just after the storm had stopped, and the clouds started breaking up suddenly, creating this scene that resonated with me as some sort of calling. I knew I was on the right path, even though the feeling could stop the next second. But my ascent would only be accompanied by incredible atmospheres.